12-letter words containing b, e, n, i
- bearing wall — any of the walls supporting a floor or the roof of a building.
- bearskin rug — the pelt of a bear, used as a rug
- becomingness — The state or quality of becoming.
- bed moulding — a moulding in an entablature between the corona and the frieze
- bed of nails — a situation or position of extreme difficulty
- bed-blocking — the use of hospital beds by elderly patients who cannot leave hospital because they have no place in a residential care home
- beefheartian — of or recalling the music of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, an avant-garde rock/blues band (1966–1982); incorporating strange rhythms, free jazz elements, bizarre lyrics, and growling vocals
- beer drinker — a person who drinks beer
- begging bowl — If a country or organization approaches other countries or organizations with a begging bowl, it asks them for money.
- begrudgingly — If you do something begrudgingly, you do it unwillingly.
- behenic acid — a crystalline, saturated fatty acid, C 22 H 44 O 2 , obtained from plant sources, used chiefly in the manufacture of cosmetics, waxes, and plasticizers.
- beijing duck — a roasted duck prized for its crisp skin, prepared by forcing air between skin and meat, brushing with sugar water, and hanging up to dry before final cooking.
- beit knesset — a synagogue: often used in the names of congregations
- belaying pin — a cylindrical, sometimes tapered pin, usually of metal or wood, that fits into a hole in a pin or fife rail: used for belaying
- beleaguering — to surround with military forces.
- belgian hare — a large red breed of domestic rabbit
- belittlement — to regard or portray as less impressive or important than appearances indicate; depreciate; disparage.
- bell captain — a person in charge of a group of bellhops
- bell housing — A bell housing is a bell-shaped extension of an engine crankcase, that contains the flywheel and the clutch.
- belligerence — the act or quality of being belligerent or warlike; aggressiveness
- belligerency — the state of being at war
- belligerents — warlike; given to waging war.
- belly-aching — Informal. a pain in the abdomen or bowels.
- ben franklin — Aretha [uh-ree-thuh] /əˈri θə/ (Show IPA), born 1942, U.S. singer.
- benchmarking — In business, benchmarking is a process in which a company compares its products and methods with those of the most successful companies in its field, in order to try to improve its own performance.
- bendix drive — A Bendix drive is a drive consisting of a pinion wheel (= a gear with a small number of teeth) carried on a shaft. The shaft rotates, causing the pinion to move.
- benedict iii — died a.d. 858, pope 855–58.
- benedict vii — died a.d. 983, pope 974–83.
- benedict xii — (Jacques Fournier) died 1342, French ecclesiastic: pope 1334–42.
- benedict xiv — (Prospero Lambertini) 1675–1758, Italian ecclesiastic: pope 1740–58; scholar and patron of the arts.
- benedict xvi — original name Joseph Alois Ratzinger. born 1927 in Germany, pope (2005–2013): the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415: on retirement he was accorded the title pope emeritus
- beneficially — conferring benefit; advantageous; helpful: the beneficial effect of sunshine.
- beneficiated — to treat (ore) to make more suitable for smelting.
- benefit club — a club whose members enjoy certain benefits, such as reduced prices for travel or sporting events
- bengal light — a firework or flare that burns with a steady bright blue light, formerly used as a signal
- bengal tiger — a large tiger found in S. Asia
- benioff zone — a long narrow region, usually adjacent to a continent, along which earthquake foci lie on a plane which dips downwards at about 45° and along which the oceanic lithosphere is thought to be descending into the earth's interior
- benzene ring — the hexagonal ring of bonded carbon atoms in the benzene molecule or its derivatives
- benzoic acid — a white crystalline solid occurring in many natural resins, used in the manufacture of benzoates, plasticizers, and dyes and as a food preservative (E210). Formula: C6H5COOH
- benzonitrile — a clear, colorless, viscous, poisonous liquid, C 7 H 5 N, used chiefly as an intermediate in organic synthesis.
- benzoquinone — a yellow crystalline water-soluble unsaturated ketone manufactured from aniline and used in the production of dyestuffs. Formula: C6H4O2
- berlichingen — Götz von (ɡœts fɔn), called the Iron Hand. 1480–1562, German warrior knight, who robbed merchants and kidnapped nobles for ransom
- bernina alps — a mountain group in SE Switzerland, extending from the Rhateian Alps on the Italian border. Highest peak, Piz Bernina, 13,304 feet (4055 meters).
- bernina pass — a pass in the Alps between SE Switzerland and N Italy, east of Piz Bernina. Height: 2323 m (7622 ft)
- beseechingly — to implore urgently: They besought him to go at once.
- best in show — an award to the dog, cat, or other animal judged best of all breeds in a competition.
- best-selling — A best-selling product such as a book is very popular and a large quantity of it has been sold.
- beta orionis — Rigel
- beta testing — (programming) Evaluation of a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software (or possibly hardware) by making it available to selected users ("beta testers") before it goes on general distribution. Beta testign aims to discover bugs that only occur in certain environments or under certain patterns of use, while reducing the volume of feedback to a manageable level. The testers benefit by having earlier access to new products, features and fixes. Beta testing may be preceded by "alpha testing", performed in-house by a handful of users (e.g. other developers or friends), who can be expected to give rapid, high quality feedback on design and usability. Once the product is considered to be usable for its intended purpose it then moves on to "beta testing" by a larger, but typically still limited, number of ordinary users, who may include external customers. Some companies such as Google or Degree Jungle stretch the definition, claiming their products are "in beta" for many months by millions of users. The term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. "Alpha test" was the unit test, module test or component test phase; "Beta Test" was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design.
- beta version — beta testing